Something old, something new: Issues in music and worship

Worship is surely at the centre of the Christian life and therefore the prime focus of the church. As The Methodist Worship Book puts it, ‘Worship is a gracious encounter between God and the Church’. We respond to God’s love and grace and celebrate his mighty acts. 

That response is appropriately expressed in music and, especially for Methodists, in singing. We inherit a very long tradition of the use of music in worship. 

Readers will be aware of the many instances of the use of instruments and singing to be found in the Old Testament, especially those associated with the Jerusalem temple. This is most evident in the Psalms and in some of the titles and notations added to them after the rebuilding of the temple. For example, Psalm 4 is headed ‘with stringed instruments’, Psalm 5 ‘for the flutes’. Psalm 22 was sung to a known tune ‘to the hind of the dawn’, and the familiar opening of Psalm 95 ‘O come let us sing to the Lord…let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise’ is fundamental to a denomination which was born in song. The New Testament has less evidence of music in worship but it does contain references to hymns (e.g. Mark 14:26 ‘when they had sung a hymn’, and Col.3:16 ‘as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God’) and very probably some early Christian hymns within the text (e.g. Phil.2:5-11).

In a recent article tracing the evolution of our new hymn collection a quote from Revd Ruth Jeffries says that ‘Singing is also a heavenly activity… as we join with the angels in singing praises to our Creator God’. All this reminds us that worship is our highest endeavour and that the music of whatever kind it may be must be the best we are able to offer. 

What we can offer in practice depends on the resources of each church. Many churches, particularly our smaller rural chapels, often have very limited musical resources. We are all familiar with the ‘reluctant organist’, pressed into the job because no-one else is available. Many are pianists with no organ training who would be happier with the piano or, considering the state of many church pianos, a modern keyboard. There may well be no-one in the congregation who can play any instrument and so churches resort to pre-recorded discs where at least the playing is accurate, but necessarily inflexible and sometimes limited in content. In such situations, what is the best we can offer? Perhaps it’s unaccompanied singing.

In other, often larger, churches, there will be much greater resources and so many more possibilities are opened up. As well as competent organist(s) there may be a traditional choir (rather than a remnant) or a choir gathered for specific occasions and, very likely, keyboard players and a variety of instrumentalists with a contemporary singing group along with modern sound equipment. Such rich resources can and should be used to enhance our worship.

Styles of Music

Sadly, however, as others have pointed out, there is often dissent between these various groups and between those in the congregation who prefer traditional music and instruments – choir, organ, traditional hymns – and those who like modern worship songs, instrumental band and singing group. It is not a new problem.

I am reminded of Thomas Hardy’s famous novel, Under the Greenwood Tree. Writing from his own experience, Hardy, whose father and grandfather had been members of a church band or orchestra based in the west gallery of the church at Stinsford in Dorset, explores the tensions which existed in church music in the first half of the nineteenth century, when Victorian clergy were keen to replace such bands with an organ. In the story, the vicar, Mr. Maybold, receives a deputation from the instrumentalists and says to them: ‘I want you to understand that I don’t wish to change the church music by forcible means or in a way which should hurt the feelings of my parishioners’, but, he goes on, ‘I myself, I must own, prefer organ music to any other. I consider it most proper and feel justified in endeavouring to introduce it.’

Now the opposite is the case. Many wish to replace the organ with other instruments. Hardy’s vicar, whilst expressing sensitivity to the feelings of his congregation, is quite determined to do what he wants. It’s a delicate task for the minister, preacher or worship leader to seek to reconcile sometimes entrenched positions within our churches with regard to the music. We must beware of being disingenuous like Mr Maybold or of restricting ourselves to one particular style of music. It’s by no means easy to hold together such different preferences and so some have moved to holding separate services with different styles of music and worship, often resulting in parallel congregations who may have little interaction. I would argue that we need to be open to all styles and that we should seek to embrace the best of both the traditional and the contemporary. To do otherwise is surely to impoverish our worship.

Old and New Words

Just as we can have different styles of music, so we can sing hymns old and new. The group which has compiled Singing the Faith has sought to do this. As its preface says: ‘It carves a careful path through our rich heritage of hymnody, as well as the wealth of material that has been published since Hymns and Psalms was introduced in 1983’. The title of the new book Singing the Faith, implies both singing to God, the object of our faith, and singing the content of that faith. Hence in terms of the words we sing, it’s important to examine the substance as well as the language in which they are expressed. Most will contain biblical phrases but the mere repetition of such phrases is not necessarily of any more value than the kind of sermon which seeks to make its point by little more than a catena of biblical quotations.

Any hymn or song we sing is not good simply because it’s old or because it’s new. It’s only good if, as the preface to Hymns and Psalms says, ‘it assists in making possible a worship which is God’s approach to us and our approach to God’. There is much criticism of some modern worship songs for being repetitious or lacking in depth, sometimes with tunes which are unmemorable or difficult to follow, but similar criticisms can be leveled at older and more traditional hymns.

Those who remember Richard Jones’s Local Preachers’ text book Groundwork of Worship and Preaching (1980) will recall the author’s scathing criticism of some hymns in the 1933 Methodist Hymn Book which used flowery language such as ‘In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea’ (MHB 260) which he describes as ‘religious trash’. He is equally critical of words which are too intensely individualistic, contain obscure symbolism or bad theology.

‘The Sweet Power of Music’

The church has frequently tried to adopt popular forms and styles of music over the years. General William Booth of the Salvation Army famously said, ‘Why should the devil have all the best tunes?’ Even Martin Luther introduced popular chorales into worship during the Reformation and this process of using popular music has gone on rapidly since the 1960s.

The language of modern worship songs has not always kept pace and it has been pointed out that too many lack any modern images. Interestingly, one early attempt to do this ‘God of concrete, God of steel’ (Hymns and Songs 1969) with its references to pylons, motorways and rockets was not included in Hymns and Psalms, possibly because it quickly became dated.

Apart from singing by congregation, choir or singing group, music can help to create an atmosphere whether it be calm and reflective or uplifting and joyous. Sometimes it conveys emotion better than words. With the appropriate licence there is, of course, a wide range of recorded music which can be used as background to different parts of a service or in preparation for worship. Shakespeare refers to ‘the sweet power of music’ – surely a power which we should harness in our worship in whatever form it takes, enabling that gracious encounter with God.

Andrew Champley is a minister in the Shropshire and Marches Circuit, at present working in mainly rural churches.